Farewell Summer

I'm sorry that I've been such a bad blogger for the last few months.  I've been working on various assemblage art but have not done as much art as usual.  I think my muse went on vacation!  I'm pleased to say the wheels are rolling again and I'm back to slapping around inks and paints with abandon again.

I produced my final three ATCs for a swap group I belong to and thought I'd post two of

them here.

Oh I do like to be beside the seaside......

 I loved making this, it was so much fun.  The lower portion of the card is base coated with sand medium, and then painted with Titan Buff paint.  The water is water soluble pastels and the sky is distress ink with a mask applied to create the cloud.
The beach hut is a wooden embellishment I found in my stash and the jandals (flip flops) are made from shrink plastic.  I found the idea on the net and copied :)

The final ATC below is stamped and painted and then dipped in UTEE and then in gold and silver flakes.  These were then rubbed back to remove all the loose flake before being redipped in UTEE.

Thanks for taking a look and sorry it's been so long!

Zombie Baby !

It's been a while since I posted anything but seeing as how this is my 100th post I thought I'd do something, well different.

I'm currently doing a Michael Demeng course on distressed and disturbed dolls.  It is actually a course on paint techniques but the substrate is dolls or more specifically, their heads.  I know this isn't to everyone's taste but this is the first of my little critters.

The night of the Zombies.........  mwaaaaaa

The effects are all done with paint, there is no texture other than that created with the paint and the paint effects.  I lost count of the number of layers on here but it must be 20 or so if you include the preparation layers.

Thanks for stopping by and .....  sleep well :)

Adventures with mica!

I've played with various types of mica for years, mostly because they sparkle and I like that.  However mica powders and mica flakes are not a patch on mica tablets or sheet mica!
I ordered some a couple of weeks ago and have been playing.  You can see the results below:

Looks like a stained glass window

 Mica is a rock, and when it arrived it was in a relatively thick sheets (like mount board thickness).  I was surprised to discover it didn't snap when I bent it, I wobbled it and eventually took a pair of scissors to it!
When I ran my thumb nail over the edge I found it was easy to de-laminate various layers, until they became super thin. and even more flexible.

You can see some minor de-lamination in the sheet above

The piece above is alcohol ink dripped onto glossy card stock as the substrate.  Unfortunately, you can't see the reflective quality of the mica in the photo's.   I peeled off a thin sheet of mica and stamped it with StazOn ink.  So far I haven't had much luck with other inks, but that is experimentation for another day.  After stamping, I glued the mica sheet to the substrate with Glossy Accents and once dry, I cut it with craft scissors.

Reminds me of ice!

I then tried embossing it in a folder.  The piece I embossed was almost full thickness and I was absolutely stunned with the result.  The various layers de-laminated where the embossing was and turned the whole thing into a beautiful mirror like finish.  Unfortunately it was too thick and reflective to see the substrate, so I carefully peeled off a layer.  It isn't as easy to peel whole layers once they are embossed.  There is a tendency for it to split away, but you get some lovely pieces that can be used elsewhere.

Close up of embossing and de-lamination

This piece is also alcohol ink on glossy card stock, with a layer of embossed mica over the top.  The stamping was done after it was put together and I added some blue dewdrops to finish it.

Thanks for looking and back to the experimentation!

Morpheus Complete!

What do you get when you combine, a recipe box, broken jewellery, an old drawer pull and lots of other found objects?  You get a Morpheus box!

This was a Michael Demeng course I did and have had great fun playing with it.  The centre block is turned by either the key at the top, or the hand at the bottom.  I loved how the late afternoon sun cast shadows on the wall.

Yes, that is an eye at the bottom!

 From the side view you can tell this piece is quite deep to allow the interior panel to turn.

Paint techniques - faux metal / copper

The centre panel is made from wood and each side of the panel has a vintage photo collaged onto vintage book paper and is treated to various paint techniques.

Doctor Deranged

The top piece is a drawer pull that has been given various layers of paints and texture to make it appear old and distressed.  The hand at the bottom is from an old dolly and has also been painted extensively.

Roger, the portly landlord

The key at the top is a radiator bleeding key that was painted and textured.  

Mr Evil

The studs down each side of the front are half pearls painted to resemble metal that has tarnished.  

The round piece at the base is the back from a brooch and the ivory face is made from a mold of a Star Wars figurine.  It is made from polymer clay and painted in faux aged ivory.

Alice the office werewolf

I'm so pleased I did this course, it showed me how to look at familiar objects in a very different way.

Little Daisy is bright today

Better late than never with my submission to the Sunday Postcard Challenge - Journal on a postcard!

I used a sample tube of paint I received from Liquitex in Quin Magenta and mixed in some Golden fluid primary yellow and primary cyan.  I also mixed some Slow Dry medium into the magenta, before I applied it.

This is amazing stuff I think, the acrylic paint stayed open and workable for about 40 minutes!  In fact it wasn't the best idea to try it when I was in a hurry to finish it :)

My beautiful garden

After the background I pressed some white gesso through a Dylusions stencil to make circles and squares, stamped some checks in Archival Monarch Orange and Deep Purple, before stamping my crazy lady in Deep Purple also.
The flowers were drawn with Posca pens and the text is a cheap rub-on I bought in a kit at the Pound Shop!

Gothic Arch Demeng style

The challenge at Three Muses today is Gothic and a little dark.  I chose to work in the style of Michael Demeng, who does some very spine chilling assemblage art.  Unfortunately, I didn't have enough time for all of the layers of painting, sealing and washes to dry properly so I've got some crinkling and buckling but all in all, I think it's OK. (I was going to glue a small eye to the flower but didn't want to spook you all out)

What an evil looking dude!

The card is 300 gsm cardstock painted in Paynes Grey.  Once dry I painted over the top with PVA glue (creates a gentle crackle).  While that was drying I cut out the Gothic arch from old text paper and adhered the evil man to it.
Then came lots of layers of various paints until the vintage text almost fell apart.  I painted some paper ribbon with Van Dyke brown paint for the bottom and a flower embellishment to the top.  Then attempted Demengs signature dots and wriggly things!
It was certainly an interesting exercise in what happens to various papers, paints and varnishes when you rush through and dry them with a heat gun!!!

Why worry...

Orange is a great colour and it's hard to be unhappy when you are looking at such a cheery colour.  This is the challenge at Take A Word this week.
I have made a simple piece with orange as the primary colour

I sprayed the card stock with sunshine yellow Dylusions spray ink.  Next I stamped the background motif with Versamark and rubbed over with Perfect Pearls Blue Patina and Perfect Copper before spraying with hair spray.
Next I stamped the lady (who reminds me of Maid Marion in the old Robin Hood series) in black StayzOn Ink.  Next came some doodle string hearts and some rub on lettering.

Thanks for taking a look.

Steampunk notebook!!

Life has been hectic lately with not enough hours in the day.  However, you can never be too busy to play with art supplies!  This notebook cover is something I made a few weeks ago but had not photographed until today.

I haven't put the pages inside or applied the binding yet.

I see steampunk in there!

 This started life as a hard back, spiral bound notebook from Sainsbury 21 x 15 cm.   The rest is all from my art supplies.  I started out withe steampunk sections.  Most parts are made with grunge paper with a little plastic used for the gears and some half dome pearls for bolts.

 Various layers of paint, washes and dry brushing give it a metallic look. The final dry brush layer was silver paint, which you can see has hit the high spots.

The 'metal' strapping is actually grunge paper with the holes made with a hole punch.  The punch pieces are then used in other areas as rivets.

Inside the front cover is a page from a 1931 edition of Punch with a phrenology head stamped over it.  The edges have been given a faux burned effect and I stamped some 'blotches' in a rusty orange colour.  The circle around the eye is Golden Iridescent Bronze - gorgeous paint.

The back of the book inside cover is the same except no circle around the eye and the outer back cover is plain 'rock'

A Bevy of ATC's

I'm a member of an ATC swap group and recently did a swap in the theme of 'Green', another with the theme of 'Keys'.  I finally did a swap with any theme.  These tiny pieces of art are sometimes difficult for me and challenge me to be simple.
They are all very different ATCs with many products so I won't go through how they are all made.  If anyone would like to know you can always drop me an email :)

Here are the nine ATC I made this month.

ATC Green Flowers

ATC Green Leaves

ATC Green Bow

ATC Forgot my key

ATC Queens Key

ATC Bronze Keys

ATC Super Star Diva

ATC Whats the time

ATC Essence

Thinking happy thoughts.

The Three Muses have the theme 'black and white stripes' today.  Unfortunately I wanted to work with bright colours, so did both - black and white stripes surrounded by a riot of colour!

When my day is dismal, I create my own happy place

Here is a double page spread in my art journal.  It started out as a series of pencil doodles and then before I knew it, I was doing stripes.  There is no logic or rational behind it, it just is me having fun.

Pencil drawings then over drawn with black fine line pen, then some black paint and some black felt marker.  Once all the black and white was completed, I pulled out my Inklensils in lemon, orange and red and randomly coloured the background.  After wetting the colours really popped out and I felt a rough day become bright and cheery.

Next came some stamping in Archival Monarch Orange, Memento London Fog and StayzOn black.

My two favourite stamps are the Reality Check and the flying pig.  I love my barmy stamps!

Thanks very much for taking a look and I hope my journal has brought some joy to your day too.

Thinking about gardens

I've just returned from the garden centre and can't help wishing I had a cute little garden to plant up.  The fact is I don't, I have a balcony, so I decided to make my own little garden for the Sunday Postcard Art challenge this week.

Butterfly's are early this year!

 I bought a packet of little bows today and couldn't help thinking they looked like butterflies, so they are!  I began by spraying the card with water and then with Dylusions ink in London Blue and Cut Grass.  I rolled over the top with a paper towel which transferred some pattern and also some colour.

Once it was dry I used a baby wipe to remove colour through a flower stencil and then stamped some grasses and small flowers using London Fog Memento Ink.

I finished up by attaching the buttons and the bow and then drawing a trail for the butterfly using a Sakura Gelly Roll pen in clear star.  I love these pens.

Thanks as always for taking a look, it's much appreciated.  Check out the other art at SPA.

Shake your tail feathers

Today's challenge at Sunday Postcard Art is 'chevron'.  Work has been so busy this past week that I haven't had much time to play with any art, so today I continued with my exploration of translucency.  I'm still having fun playing with various weights and colour of tissue paper and also translucent paints.  I also bought some new matte varnish today too, so tried it on the orange tissue paper which bleeds horribly - good result with hardly any bleed.

Do my tail feathers look big in this?

Today piece is a collage worked on 300 gsm card, starting with Golden Titan Buff and when dry I stamped little spots on it with Archival Ink Coffee.  Next came the chevrons, which I hand cut from a vintage Punch magazine before painting with Golden Nickel Azo Gold.  Once dry, these were collaged to the base.
I found the image of the bird on the web and printed it on white tissue before adhering it to the base with fluid matte medium.

The text is printed from my computer and coloured with Tea Dye distress stain.  I applied another layer of white tissue paper across the bottom of the card before distressing the card edges with Distress Ink in Vintage Photo.  I then went around the edges again and applied a rough dab of Golden Iridescent Bronze paint.

Translucent Angel

The Take a Word challenge this week is Stone Angels and this piece is based on a photo of a stone angel that Captain Slow took in Salisbury Cathedral a year or so ago.  I've been missing from the challenges for a week or so as I worked on various technique experiments.  I've used some of those techniques below.  I'm also working on some assemblage art which is great fun.

Translucent lady

The substrate is 5" x 7" canvas board and has some vintage paper collaged to commence.  Then came some stamping onto tissue paper using Archival ink in French Ultramarine and stamping direct to canvas with London Fog.  There are so many  layers of paint, wash and glaze that I can't list them all the paints are Quinacridone Crimson, Quinacridone Nickel Azo Gold and Iridescent Bronze (Fine) all by Golden.
I also stamped with the Crimson and Bronze paints.

The angel was printed from my computer onto white tissue paper (took a while to figure this out) and then made translucent before attaching to the canvas.  Next came many more layers of paint.

Stamping and background visible through the stone angel

The cross was made with polymer clay and when hardened I painted it with a faux ivory technique before attaching to the substrate.  Now that I have created the mold, I will be making lots more crosses for future pieces.

Looks like tortured souls

Thanks so much for looking and taking the time to leave a comment, it is always appreciated.

My eyes are dim I cannot see.....

After making these two moos for the Three Muses Challenge, I think I'll need some Coke Bottle specs!  I don't usually like making these, they are too small and fiddly to handcraft unless I have lots of time, however...  a stressful day at work meant I needed to spend some time in the studio to unwind.

I'm not sure I'm any less stressed but here are my two mini creations.

Silly Old Moo

The background of this one is painted with Americana paints in Indian Turquoise and Spa Blue.  I stamped the lady on white paper and coloured her with many Promarkers.  I then glued her to the substrate and drew some lines and dashes and then stamped a circle in gold paint and dragged some gold paint over the top parts before writing on it.

Hideous Baby Moo

The background on the second piece is Neocolor II.  I stamped the baby on white paper and coloured it with Inktensils and Promarkers.  I sprayed the background with sparkle varnish (looks like white dots) and then glued the baby to the background.

Ridiculous Moos

I've recently joined a group called Abandoned Art, where you leave small pieces of art for people to find, these two delightful quirky things will be sealed in a cello bag and hidden somewhere with a note telling the finder that they can either keep, give away or leave the pieces.  Hopefully someone will post a note to say they found them.

Thanks for looking and please check out the other artists.

That's a jazzy kite!

Ever since I saw Three Muses challenge of Fly a Kite, I've had this idea floating around in my head.  I just couldn't let go of it, so eventually had to create it in my journal.

Welcome to my jazzy kite!

Let's go fly a kite....  

The journal page already had some ink on it from mopping up some previous spills.  I sprayed the whole page with water and then the lower part with Lime Crush followed by Cut Grass in patches.  The top part of the page was sprayed with Vibrant Turquoise.  Once it was dry I lay stencils over the top (flowers, Letters and a clock) and sprayed through them with water and let them sit until the ink re-dissolved before I mopped them with paper towel.  Next I applied some Gesso through a harlequin stencil and left it all to dry while I worked on the saxophone.

I sketched the saxophone shape onto a vintage text page, cut it out then painted it in Golden Translucent Primary Yellow.  I stamped on it with music stamp in Pumice Stone Distress ink and at the same time I stamped on the background across the grass.

Next came a little colouring of the sax with some cheap oil pastels and a charcoal pencil before I glued it to the background.  Finally I drew the music coming from the sax and going into the sky with kite being represented by the treble clef.

A totally bonkers bit of work, but my muse is happy now.  Thanks so much for looking, it is always appreciated.

Vintage Beauty

The topic at Take A Word Monday is Vintage Beauty so I decided to do two things at once.  I made an ATC for a swap this month and created it to suit the theme from TAW

It's a simple piece from me this time, but I love how it has turned out.

Love those shoes!

A few weeks ago I went to a Flea market and found some cigarette cards of old movie stars that I thought I may be able to use in my art. They are real photo's not a print, so they are quite thick but have aged beautifully. Today is the turn of Ms Maril De Forest and pretty she is too.

The background is scrapbook paper in a grey and paler grey stripe.  Attached to that is the photo of Ms De Forest.  Over the top I thought the Tim Holtz film ribbon was so fitting and I added the text down the right hand side from my computer and coloured with some Pumice Stone Distress Ink.

I finished it off with a small star from my stash.

Secret Recipes!

I love playing with techniques, textures, recipes and effects and have been doing lots of them lately.  So that I don't forget what I've done, what worked and what doesn't,  I have finally created a little book to put them in. I call my book of samples.

Needing something to decorate the front of the book I have been on the lookout for a couple of weeks for the perfect item and I found it last weekend at a car boot sale.  It's a Starwars figurine that I used to make a mold, then created a flat back piece in polymer clay before painting with a faux aged ivory / bone effect.  The book is approx 8.5cm x 10cm and approx 4.5cm thick!

Let the force be with me

I have a feeling I will be making subsequent volumes since I don't intend to stop doing this anytime soon.

The front and back inside cover use old text roughly torn and glued to the substrate then using an edge painting effect before covering with a fine crackle medium and rubbing in a medium to highlight the cracks.  On the right hand side is the first page of the sample - burned copper.

Words of Wisdom

The challenge at Three Muses this week is 'The Written Word'.  This journal page has quite a few layers but creating it gave me so much joy!

There was no initial plan, no rough outline, just me with my journal and a pile of art 'stuff'.

Death by a sharp word!

The background of the page is completely covered with pages from an old Punch magazine and sealed with Golden Mat Medium.  Once dry I painted over the top with DecoArt medium white mixed with Liquitex mat medium (makes the paint thin without losing pigment.) Once this was dry I used Gallery Molding paste through a text stencil and waited for it to dry completely.  Next came a text stamp in Archival Ink in Monarch Orange, followed by a French Script stamp in Archival French Ultramarine.
I then used Sennelier Oil pastels in Chinese Orange and Azure Blue and used my finger to smear them into the page and over the raised molding paste.

The words are all printed in different sizes from the computer and dabbed with Spiced Marmalade distress ink.  (tip:  I always use a pouncing motion over printed words so that the ink doesn't smear).

Thanks so much to Three Muses for the theme, I've really enjoyed creating this piece!  Check out what the other artists have done.

Thinking of Spring

Today at Take a Word they challenged us with 'Botanical s'.  It seems so long since there were beautiful spring flowers, so here's one I created.

Time to smell the flowers

 This is an ATC (2.5" x 3.5") backed on to thick card stock.  The background is plain honey coloured paper that I stamped using Versamark and the polka dot stamp from Hero Art, using Bridal Shower embossing powder before heating.

The small framed stamp is actually a large stamp with four different flowers that I cut down to a single bloom and coloured using Inkensils.  Once it was coloured I stamped over the image with a crackle stamp using Archival ink in Pale Ochre.  I wanted the image to have some gloss so I painted over it with Golden Gel Medium in Gloss and left it to dry.

Across the bottom is a strip of Tim Holtz washi tape and  the text was 'Sweet Tulip' on my computer.  The faux bow and the brad were bits from my stash.

Thanks so much for looking, it's always appreciated